In a ruthless and competitive environment like Formula One, it's not often that a driver gets a second chance to revive his Formula One career. Ricardo Zonta, the man who beat Juan Pablo Montoya to the F3000 title in 1997, is getting his third chance this weekend, when he will race for Toyota instead of compatriot Cristiano da Matta. Atlas F1's Thomas O'Keefe reviews Zonta's F1 career to date

When the Toyota team takes to the grid for the 2004 Grand Prix of Hungary, it will be a triumph of will and perseverance for Toyota's two drivers, both of whom have labored as test drivers in the Formula One vineyard - Olivier Panis at McLaren and Ricardo Zonta at Jordan and Toyota - and have been lucky enough to get a second chance at drinking the champagne.

In Zonta's case, he has already been a driver in the thick of things at scarier places than the Hungaroring.

No matter how long this young Brazilian races, it is doubtful that Ricardo Zonta will ever again experience the thrill he felt at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa in 2000, driving his 3.0 litre V10 BAR Honda, when he was suddenly passed simultaneously by two World Champions - Mika Hakkinen in a McLaren-Mercedes on his right, and Michael Schumacher in his Ferrari on his left, Zonta providing the pick for perhaps Hakkinen's most brilliant, and certainly brave, overtaking maneuver, which gave the Flying Finn the lead and the race.

"I saw Schumacher and Hakkinen in my mirrors and I slowed on the following [Kemmel] straight and just tried to give them room," Zonta later said. "It was an amazing view!" Zonta's nerves were rock solid. He did not move a muscle and stayed in the middle of the road, thus avoiding a disaster that any swerve would have caused.

But it must be said that at least until now, most of Ricardo Zonta's 31 Grands Prix have lacked the drama of that moment at Spa 2000. Now a third driver/test driver for the Toyota F1 team - who by virtue of Cristiano Da Matta's release has been promoted to become a Toyota race driver for the balance of the 2004 season - Zonta was teamed up with Jacques Villeneuve when BAR was first formed in 1999. The engine was an aging Supertec 3.0 litre V10 and the results were pretty lackluster.

Zonta's best finish in the BAR in 1999 was an eighth place in the wet/dry European Grand Prix, held at the Nurburgring, when Johnny Herbert's Stewart won the only race for Jackie Stewart's team, an anomalous race with much attrition. Zonta's 1999 season was also memorable for his crash at Eau Rouge during practice, but he recovered well enough to race.

In Sao Paulo for the 1999 Brazilian Grand Prix, Zonta was not so lucky: he had a shunt and suffered injuries to his left foot, including lacerations in the left foot and some tendons. Prof. Sid Watkins had the painful duty to inform Zonta that he would not be starting his home Grand Prix, and in fact, Zonta was out for months.

In 2000, Honda first supplied its Honda 3.0 liter V10 to BAR and in the 2000 Australian Grand Prix, Zonta's first race with the Honda, the Brazilian got his first points, finishing in sixth place, as he would on two other occasions during that season. But unfortunately, the balance of Zonta's season was marred by a series of spins at five racetracks, some of them caused by mechanical failure but some, like Monaco, down to the driver's fault.

Other than being a close witness to history at Spa, Zonta's most memorable race in 2000 was at Hockenheim for the German Grand Prix, where was he running as high as fourth place. Still, until this year's dramatic climb by BAR Honda up the Championship standings, BAR-Honda's highest position in the Constructors' Championship was fifth place, when Zonta was there in 2000 - a classification which the team repeated in 2003.

In 2001, Zonta was released by BAR-Honda but was picked up by Jordan-Honda as its test driver, Eddie Jordan valuing the knowledge Zonta had presumably accumulated about the Honda engine program which might help improve the EJ11. But by the time of the 2001 Canadian Grand Prix, Ricardo Zonta was back in the saddle and driving in races, substituting for regular Jordan driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who had crashed during Friday practice at Montreal and was still feeling the side effects.

"After the bad crash yesterday I still suffer from headache and I still feel dizzy," Frentzen said back then. "So the best thing for the team, for Ricardo Zonta and for me is to stop now and give everybody the chance to prepare the race with Ricardo."

Zonta would ultimately end up substituting for Heinz-Harald Frentzen for two Grands Prix in 2001, Canada and Germany, one because of injury (Canada) and one because, prior to the Hockenheim race, Eddie Jordan announced that Frentzen's contract had been terminated for reasons that would later be the subject of litigation.

In Canada, Zonta made the best of it and he was almost in the points when his brakes began to go off and he finished in seventh place, one of Jordan's better finishes in 2001. In Germany, however, Zonta had a run-in with Jos Verstappen and had to pit for a new nose cone, brake duct, suspension and left barge board, effectively ending his race then and there.

Germany 2001 was Zonta's most recent Grand Prix, and in 2002 he became a test driver for the Toyota Formula One team where, Zonta says, "the development of the car is essentially the main part of my job as third driver." Luckily for Zonta, the new rules for the 2004 season, including the "one-engine-per-weekend" rule, give the third driver added visibility since the third driver runs the most laps during Friday practice, gathering data to evaluate the prime and option tires and set up while the principal drivers put minimum mileage on their race engines while trying to balance their cars, letting the third driver carry the laboring oar.

Along with Anthony Davidson of Honda, Zonta has logged the most miles during Friday's practice sessions and, like Davidson, has been able to showcase his talent to Formula One observers along the pit lane. Says Zonta: "Being a third driver is very important now, because you can drive on Friday and also be the spare driver as usual. It's very good; you come to the Grand Prix and have something to do on Friday."

But what Ricardo Zonta is hoping for is to find a way back to having something to do on Sunday of a Grand Prix weekend, returning to one of the teams as a full-time driver, and, as he settles into the cockpit of his Toyota for the 2004 Grand Prix of Hungary, Zonta will take an important step in that direction.

It is often forgotten that Zonta beat Juan Pablo Montoya to the F3000 title in 1997, with three wins, four poles and four fastest laps. So the talent to be a first rank driver is there. Still, only 28 years old, Zonta may be the best of the substitute drivers we have seen this season; let us hope that Toyota gives Zonta the chance to prove himself and that the crashes and mechanical failures that have held Zonta back in his earlier years do not mar what may be his last chance to become a Sunday Driver.

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